Thanks for the offer to help, too bad I don't get that far north too often. Based on what we discussed I think I am going to order an NMO mount and give the bar mount a shot. I hate to use so many connectors, but in the end it may not be that bad.

I looked up your Flexi-whip and I did not see a dual band version, bummer. I will need to find another one now that I have the idea of a flexible 1/4 wave NMO mount stuck in my head.